Jean Cocteau—the French artist, writer, filmmaker, and aesthete—had an appreciation for grand gestures. In a scene from Beauty and the Beast, his lush cinematic version of the traditional fairy tale, Belle, played by Josette Day, takes leave of the creature's castle to visit her ailing father. Thinking back upon her melancholy captor, she cries tears that turn into diamonds. The diamonds used in the scene were real, supplied by the house of Cartier.

Like many artists, Cocteau sometimes lived hand to mouth, but he was so enchanted by Cartier creations that he wore a pair of the jeweler's Trinity rings—three entwined bands of white, rose, and yellow gold—stacked on his left pinkie. And when Cocteau was inducted into the Académie Française in 1955, at the age of 66, his friends commissioned Cartier to ornament his honorary sword with imagery taken from his books, drawings, and films.

Cocteau lived and worked in the swirl of bohemian Paris, but in 1947, as he approached 60, he moved to a vine-covered cottage in the bucolic village of Milly-la-Forêt, an hour outside the city. He hired his friend Madeleine Castaing, the legendary antiques dealer and designer, to decorate the house. Now, nearly five decades after his death, Cocteau's retreat has been restored with financial support from Cartier and opens to the public this month.

To celebrate, Cartier has created new additions to its Trinity line, inspired by the artist's dandyish personal style. The Trinity La Belle has six rolling bands, a reference to Cocteau's double pinkie rings; one loop is stamped with the star the writer used to underscore his signature. The Trinity Sauvage ring, a bracelet, and a pendant each have a band imprinted with black-lacquer spots, a nod to the jeweler's famed panther motif and to the leopard-print walls Castaing installed in the study at Milly-la-Forêt—a dual tribute to the inventive spirits of Cocteau and Cartier.